Yep. In AtLA, bending had to be "learned". Aang was an Airbending prodigy, but he needed to learn Water/Earth/Fire. Katara was a Waterbender, but she needed to learn. Zuko was a Firebender, but he needed to learn. Toph was an Earthbending prodigy, but she learned. Even Uncle Iroh clearly became great by learning.Lizuka wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:56 amI think the point was more about how Korra just suddenly knew them all rather than actually learning, like, any of them. Including airbending given the training to use it subplot was ditched almost immediately then she was just suddenly a master of it when backed into a corner.
Korra was randomly gifted with Waterbending/Earthbending/Firebending when she was a toddler. And then she spent her entire formative years failing to learn Airbending, apparently through stubborn obstinate refusal to learn (perhaps due to frustration, or maybe because everything else had been handed to her so easily, although I think that might be being too generous to her character).
She was finally gifted with her fourth element, Airbending, when she saw Mako lose his Firebending, and the shock of it allowed her to get upset enough to "punch through" the concept of Airbending (even though AtLA suggested that that was more of an "Earthbending" mindset, and like the entirety of Korra's unyielding character, should be counterproductive towards trying to learn Airbending).
It's good that Unalaq only knew how to Waterbend after becoming the Dark Avatar, but Korra is the worst example for why he wasn't granted automatic access to all the elements. Korra never "learned" a single one of them. They were all attained through automatic "access granted" free unlockings.
